mergers

don't think the FCC has ever had a popular decision. As far as I have seen, every decision they make ends up in court. TELRIC, Brand-X (DSL and Cable access for ISP's), CBS Nipplegate, Tennis Channel versus Comcast, AT&T-T-Mobile decision, cell phone radiation (which is back in the news), USF Reform and the list just goes on.

Birch is expanding in the Greater Tampa Bay market with its acquisition of Daystar. Birch recently completed its acquisition of AstroTel, who I was an agent for. Daystar was a facilities-based CLEC based just south of Sarasota, with a customer base from Tampa to Naples. It gives Birch some more assets south of Tampa.

When I have spoken to Broadsoft customers, there has often been speculation that Broadsoft would have to go direct. The hope at the Cloud Communications Alliance was that all of them would be merged into one retail company. Did something like that just happen?

It looks like the FCC is going to approve the Verizon acquisition of the SpectrumCo - cable companies alliance - spectrum. Competitors are hoping for conditions on the deal, including conditions on the marketing deal that the joint-venture is designed for.

Sprint's concern to the FCC is about equal access to cablecos for tower backhaul. I wasn't aware that the cablecos had a huge stake in the tower backhaul business.

In many ways, Wavecom was as big a competitor to the incumbent carrier in Hawaii as Oceanic TWC. A facilities-based CLEC, an ISP, a wholesaler and a Hosted PBX player. That's four areas where it was a thorn in HT's side.